Editor’s Note: The following is a first person account of a recent concert in Boston, Mass. featuring a Portsmouth artist.

BOSTON, Mass. — Friday night the 21st century ran smack-dab into the 1960s and they both came out a winner.

Recently, I ran into old friends, Theresa and Scott Mercer of Cape Neddick, Maine. The Mercers and I share some experience with, and a lot of love for, the music of the folk singer songwriters of the ’60s and ’70s. They told me a former New Hampshire native was preparing a show for December 28 in Boston.

This is what happened:

A full house at Symphony Hall in Boston became both the audience and participant as folk singer Tom Rush performed “Tom Rush Celebrates 50 years of Music”.

Not only was the show live on stage, it was also streamed live throughout the world via the Internet from www.tomrush.org. Such comments as “coming through loud and clear in New Zealand” were written throughout the three hour show.

Rush was joined on stage by a cast of characters from his past and they performed well both individually and in concert with the famed folk singer songwriter.

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Rush was born in Portsmouth in July of 1941 to a father who taught at Concord’s St. Paul’s School. Rush, a masterful storyteller on stage, commented that he was raised by his parents to play the piano since neither of them did. “It didn’t work,” said a jocular Rush, “it was horrible for me, the teacher and my parents.” Interestingly, Rush opened the annual Cochecho Arts Festival in Dover on June 5, 1987.

While attending Harvard he gravitated to the embryonic folk scene, particularly the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. His personae and skills are often said to have been the foundation of the folk revival. Numbering among his followers and friends were Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Jackson Browne.

Blazing a trail throughout four decades, Rush was a staple on the college circuit, and the 2000s have seen a renewed interest in his music. Recently a song went viral on YouTube, receiving over six million plays, prompting Rush to comment “I’ve waited 45 years to become an overnight sensation!”

Urged by friends to celebrate his 50th anniversary in the business, Rush investigated the cost to bring a one night show to Symphony Hall where in the past he had appeared in some holiday concerts. He was astounded at the cost.

Here comes part of the cultural time line ... in order to raise the money, he made an appeal for funds on kickstart.com, a world wide website used as a “funding platform for creative projects.” Rush set a goal of $100,000 to be raised, and to his surprise and pleasure the campaign brought in almost $141,000.

The show opened with individual and group performances by some of Rush’s longtime bandmate musicians and some well known and not so well known artists.

Portland Maine’s Jonathan Edwards (of Sunshine fame) brought the crowd to its feet, as did long time performer and friend of Rush’s, David Bromberg, whose humor brought out the best of Rush later on.

A performer not know to the vast majority of the audience was Dom Flemons, a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a string band in the old time style. Flemons was born in 1982, over 20 years after Rush began performing. Flemons, who had never met Rush, was excited at the prospect of playing with a man who was a pivotal figure in folk history.

Tom Rush took the stage about 10 in the evening to tumultuous applause and he proceeded to show that he has lost nothing off his fast ball. He intermingled old favorites such as No Regrets/Rockport Sunday with newer creations. One such was a tongue-in-cheek love song to his wife. Rush also showed that his humor hasn’t disappeared, referring to the fact that his wife may have been more moved by his writing the song for her “if I hadn’t emailed it to her from the road.”

The cameras showed that the crowd of 2,200 held a distinct knowledge of the Tom Rush “songbook” with the audience of many “baby boomers” now balding and gray haired, singing along to his words.

Rush sat down, thanked the audience for bringing him back to the stage, and then said to the roaring and anxious audience “you know what’s coming now.” Traditionally his encore, he saved arguably the best for last, and he and the group swung into a rousing rendition of “Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm”, the story of the Galveston Flood, a disaster that killed 12,000 people in 1900.

Rush, again in a link from the past to the present, mentioned the inability of some fans to attend the evening’s performance for “they had lost their home in Sandy.”

The show was billed as a one-time affair celebrating his silver anniversary in the business, but based on the reaction of the thousands in attendance, Tom may have to lived up to his end of the concert comment.